Load dividing drive for single trimmer chain for boring miner



Oct. 15,- 1968 E. F. BRILL LOAD DIVIDING DRIVE FOR SINGLE TRIMMER CHAINFOR BORING MINER Filed June 22, 1966 l I I L w 3 Sheets-Sheet 1INVENTOR. [om/.420 F5/LL Oct. 15, 1968 E. F. BRILL 3,405,975

LOAD DIVIDING DRIVE FOR SINGLE TRIMMER CHAIN FOR BORING MINER Filed June22, 1966 5 Sheets-Sheet 2 INVENTOR.

fan 420 F 52/4L Oct. 15, 1968 E. F. BRILL 3,405,975

LOAD DIVIDING DRIVE FOR SINGLE TRIMMER CHAIN FOR BORING MINER Filed June22, 1966 5 Sheets-Sheet 5 INVENTOR.

United States Patent 3,405,975 LOAD DIVIDING DRIVE FOR SINGLE TRHMMERCHAIN FOR BORING MINER Edward F. Brill, Uconomowoc, Wis., assignor toWestinghouse Air Brake Company, Pittsburgh, Pa., a corporation ofPennsylvania Filed June 22, 1966, Ser. No. 559,614 3 Claims. (Cl.299-59) ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLGSURE Load dividing drive for the singletrimmer chain of a boring type continuous mining machine. The chain istrained inwardly of opposite ends of upper and lower trimmer barstrimming the floor and roof of the mine toward the center of the machineinto a generally hourglass form about drive sprockets disposed midwaybetween the trimmer bars and inwardly of the hubs of the boring heads.Each drive sprocket has its own tensioning roller and the two drivesprockets are positively driven at the same rates of speed by the drivegearing driving the rotary boring heads.

Background of the invention In continuous mining machines of the boringtype in which two rotary boring heads mine contiguous bores in a mineface and the cusps between the boring heads, depending from the mineroof and extending upwardly from the mine floor, are trimmed by a singletrimmer chain guided in vertically spaced rectilinear chain guidesadjustable to extend along the roof and floor of the mine, the trimmerchain has usually been driven by a single sprocket and in training ofthe chain to pass from the lower to the upper trimmer bar and back tothe lower trimmer bar and about its drive and idler sprockets, the chainhas over 1000 degrees of direction changes. This adds to the frictionwhich must be overcome by the drive, which is particularly serious asthe machines become larger for mining thicker seams of coal or otherminerals.

Summary and objects of the invention A principal object of the presentinvention is to remedy the foregoing difficulties by splitting up theloads on the trimmer chain and providing substantially equal tension onwhat would normally be the slack and tension runs of the chain.

Another object of the invention is to provide an improved drive for thetrimmer chain of a continuous mining machine having a pair of contiguousboring heads and a Single trimmer chain guided to cut along the roof andfloor of a mine and having spaced vertical runs guided to clear theboring heads of the machine, in which individul drive sprockets areprovided for each vertical run, and tension means are provided fortaking up tension on the chains at the outgoing sides of the drivesprockets to maintain substantially equal tension on the chain on theincoming and outgoing sides of the drive sprockets therefor.

A still further object of the invention is to provide an improved drivefor the trimmer chain of a continuous mining machine guided for movementalong vertically spaced trimmer bars positioned adjacent the floor androof of a mine and having vertical runs guided by direction changingsprockets to extend inwardly and vertically of the ends of the trimmerbars, in which the direction changing sprockets are each drive sprocketsand in which hydraulic tensioning means are provided in association witheach drive sprocket at the outgoing side thereof for maintainingsubstantially equal tension on the chain on the incoming and outgoingsides of the drive sprockets therefor.

Still another object of the invention is to improve upon the drive tothe trimmer chain of a continuous mining machine by so dividing thedrive loads on the chain as to evenly divide the drive loads on thedrive gearing for the chain, and to thereby impose one-half as much loadon any given point on the chain, than in former drives for such chains.

These and other objects of the invention will appear from time to timeas the following specification proceeds and with reference to theaccompanying drawings wherein:

FIGURE 1 is a view in side elevation of a continuous boring minerconstructed in accordance with the principles of the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is a front end view of the miner shown in FIGURE 1;

FIGURE 3 is a fragmentary horizontal sectional view taken through thedrive to one of the trimmer chains; and

FIGURE 4 is a detail fragmentary partial front end view of the machinewith certain parts broken away in order to show certain details of thetensioning means for the trimmer chain of the machine.

In the embodiment of the invention illustrated in the drawings, I haveshown in FIGURE 1, a continuous mining machine of the multiple boringtype having a mobile base or main frame 10 forming a support for a mainsupporting housing 11 extending in advance of said main frame. The mainsupporting housing forms a bearing support for a pair of laterallyspaced rotary boring heads 12 supported in advance of said mainsupporting housing for rotation about parallel horizontal axes onopposite sides of the longitudinal center of said main frame andperpendicular to the working face of a mine. The main supporting housingalso forms a housing and bearing support for gear trains (not shown) fordriving said rotary boring heads at the same rates of speed, and asupport for motors 14, 14 projecting from the rear end of said housingadjacent opposite sides thereof and forming a drive means for the geartrains drivng said boring heads.

The rotary boring heads 12 may be of conventional forms and are no partof the present invention except as to the cooperation of atrimrner chain13 with said boring heads, so need not herein be shown or describedfurther.

The main frame 10 is supported on laterally spaced continuous tractiontread devices 15 (FIGURE 1), which serve to tram the machine fromworking place to working place and to feed the boring heads 12 into amine face. The continuous traction tread devices 15 may be driven fromindivdual motors and speed reducers (not shown) in a conventionalmanner, so herein not shown or described further.

The main supporting housing 11 also forms a support for an upper trimmeror cutter bar 16 extending across the forward end of said housing, inrearwardly spaced relation with respect to the boring heads 12, andforming a generally horizontal rectilinear guide for the trimmer chain13, guiding said trimmer chain to trim the cusps depending from the mineroof and left between the boring heads 12 as said boring heads progressinto the mine face. The trimmer bar 16 is mounted for adjustablemovement with respect to the main supporting housing 11 on the usualhydraulic jacks 17, mounted at the forward end of the main supportinghousing 11 in laterally spaced relation with respect to each other andextending vertically of said main supporting housing.

A lower trimmer bar 18 is disposed beneath and extends in parallelrelation with respect to the ground or mine floor, in vertical alignmentwith the upper trimmer bar 16 and forms a rectilinear guide for thelower run of the trimmer chain 13, guiding said trimmer chain to trimthe cusps left between the rotary boring heads 12 and projectingupwardly of the mine floor, in a conventional manner. The lower trimmerbar 18 is suspended from the main supporting housing 11 on a pair oflaterally spaced vertically extending hydraulic jacks 19, and is held infixed relation with respect to the ground by said jacks and verticallyadjusted to be elevated above the ground during tramming, and to adjustthe trimmer bar 18 to guide the trimmer chain 13 to out along theground.

The main supporting housing 11 is adjustably supported on the forwardend of the main frame to extend in advance thereof on fluid pressurejacks 21, secured to the rear end portion of the main supporting housing11 at opposite sides thereof and supported on pivotal support members 22of a conventional form. Control arms 23 extend rearwardly of the mainsupporting housing inwardly of motors 14 and may be mounted on the mainframe 10 at their rear ends for universal movement, as shown in PatentNo. 3,208,797 dated Sept. 28, 1965 and no part of the present inventionso not herein shown or described further.

The drive gearing journalled within the main supporting housing 11 anddriven by the two motors 14 is tied together to drive both of saidrotary boring heads together at the same rate of speed. As shown inFIGURE 3 the drive gearing includes an individual spur gear 26, fordriving each rotary boring head. Each spur gear 26 meshes with anddrives a pinion 27 keyed or otherwise secured to a sprocket drive shaft29 spaced inwardly of the axis of rotation of the rotary boring head andintermediate the upper and lower trimmer bars 16 and 18. Each driveshaft 29 extends along and coaxially of a sleeve 30, extending throughand outwardly of a front wall 31 of the main supporting housing 11. Thesleeve 30 has an intermediate radial flange 32 extending radiallyoutwardly thereof and partially recessed in the front wall 31 (FIGURE3). The radial flange 32 forms an annular projection for cap or machinescrews 33, securing said sleeve to the wall 31 to extend forwardlytherefrom in fixed relation with respect thereto. As shown in FIGURE 3,one machine screw 33 extends through an eccentric flange 35, extendingradially of a collar 36, extending about the sleeve 30 for holding saidcollar from rotatable movement about the sleeve 30.

Each shaft 29 has a drive sprocket 45 on its outer end and is journalledat the forward end of the sleeve 30, on spaced anti-friction bearings39, herein shown as being tapered roller radial thrust bearings. A drivedisk is shown as being keyed to each shaft 29 at the forward end of thesleeve 30' and as having drive connection with an abutting drive disk41, as by drive pins 43. The drive disk 41 in turn is bolted to anassociated sprocket 45 by bolts 46, to form a drive member for saidsprocket, and to accommodate ready removal of said sprocket from thedrive shaft 29.

As herein shown, each sprocket 45 is a double toothed sprocket, havingparallel spaced rows of teeth meshing between links 47 of the trimmerchain 13 and extending along opposite sides of connecting blocks 48 ofsaid trimmer chain, for driving the trimmer chain in a conventionalmanner. The sprocket 45 is shown as being mounted on its shaft 29 on abearing sleeve 49. An end cap 50 is secured to the end of the shaft 29as by machine screws 51 and extends along the front end of the sprocket45 and retains the associated sprocket 4-5 and drive disks 40 and 41 tosaid shaft.

As shown in FIGURES 1 and 2 of the drawings, the trimmer chain 13 passesabout corner sprockets 53 at opposite ends of the trimmer bar 16 andchanging the direction of a vertical incoming run of said trimmer chainto enter the trimmer bar at the end thereof, shown in FIGURE 2 as beingthe right hand end thereof, when looking toward the front of themachine, and changing the direction of said trimmer chain at the oposite end of said trimmer bar to pass angularly downwardly and inwardlyto and about a drive sprocket 45. From the drive sprocket 45 the chainpasses over a tension idler 55 and angularly outwardly and downwardlytherefrom. about a corner sprocket 56 at the incoming end of the lowertrimmer bar 18, to pass therealong, in a direction which in FIGURE 2, isshown as being from left to right. A corner sprocket 56 is provided atthe outgoing end of the trimmer bar 18, and changes the direction of thetrimmer chain 13 to pass vertically and angularly inwardly of theoutgoing end of the trimmer bar 18 to and around an opposite drivesprocket 45. A tension idler 55 takes up tension on the outgoing side ofthe vertical run of the trimmer chain 13 as it passes from the drivesprocket 45 to the corner sprocket 53, at the incoming end of thetrimmer bar 16.

The sprockets 45 thus drive the two vertical runs of the trimmer chain13 as it passes from the trimmer bar 16 and into the trimmer bar 18 andpasses from the trimmer bar 18 to be guided to pass along the uppertrimmer bar 16, and the tension idlers 55 maintain substantially uniformtension on the chain at the incoming and outgoing sides of the drivesprockets therefor.

The two drive sprockets 45 thus drive each vertical run of the trimmerchain 13 and split up the loads on the chain so that the loads on thedrive gearing are reduced in half and the loads on any given point onthe chain are reduced in half.

As shown in FIGURE 3 each tension idler 55 is journalled on a pin 60extending axially forwardly of the outer end of a tension arm 61, onanti-friction bearings 62. The tension arm 61 extends radially andangularly forwardly of a hub 63 mounted on a reduced end portion 64 ofthe sleeve 30 for pivotal movement with respect thereto. The hub 63 onone side of the machine has a bifurcated ear 65 depending therefrom. Apiston rod 66 extensible from a fluid pressure cylinder 67 extendsbetween the furcations of the bifurcated ear 65 and is pivotallyconnected thereto, as by a pivot pin 69. The cylinder 67 has abifurcated connector 70 extending from its head end and extending alongopposite sides of an ear 71 extending radially of the sleeve 36, and ispivotally connected to said car as by a pivot pin 72.

The opposite hub 63 has a bifurcated connector ear 65 extending upwardlytherefrom, having the piston rod 66 of the opposite cylinder 67connected thereto on a pivot pin 69. The cylinder is pivoted at its headend to an car 71 extending radially of the associated sleeve 36. Thebiasing connections for the two tension idlers 55 are thus the same sothe same part numbers have been applied to each cylinder and itsconnectors. The cylinders 67 are supplied with fluid under pressure fromthe same source and may be connected in parallel relation to equalizethe pressures of engagement of the tension idlers 55 with the trimmerchain 13 as it leaves the drive sprockets 45 to enter the trimmer bars16 and 18 at the incoming ends thereof, and to thereby maintainsubstantially equal tension on each vertical run of the trimmer chain.It should he understood that while I have shown individual cylinders andpistons for taking up on the two vertical runs of the trimmer chain 13,that two cylinders need not necessarily be used but equal take uppressures on the idlers 55 may be attained by the use of a singlecylinder, if desired.

Each take up arm 61 has a support plate 75 extending therefrom in adirection toward the incoming run of the trimmer chain and spacedaxially inwardly of the outgoing run of said trimmer chain. The supportplate 75 has a right angled support '76 extending forwardly therefromand having a bearing pad 79 supported thereon in position to engage theincoming run of the trimmer chain 13 as it passes about its drivesprocket, in the extreme take up positions of the tension idler 65 tothereby prevent the fouling of the outgoing run of the trimmer chainwith the inner ingoing run thereof under extreme take up conditions.

While I have herein shown and described one form in which the inventionmay be embodied, it may readily be understood that various variationsand modifications in the invention may be attained without departingfrom the spirit and scope of the novel concepts thereof.

I claim as my invention:

1. In a boring type continuous mining machine having a mobile frame,

a main supporting housing supported on said mobile frame and extendingin advance thereof,

a pair of transversely spaced rotary boring heads mounted on said mainsupporting housing on opposite sides of the longitudinal axis of saidmobile frame for rotation about parallel axes extending longitudinallyof the machine,

drive gearing within said main supporting housing for rotatably drivingsaid rotary boring heads in timed relation with respect to each other,

parallel upper and lower trimmer bars mounted on said main supportinghousing behind said rotary boring heads and positionable adjacent theroof and floor of the mine and having corner sprockets at opposite endsthereof disposed outwardly of the axes of rotation of said boring heads,

a single trimmer chain guided for movement along said trimmer bars andabout said corner sprockets and positioned by said trimmer bars to trimthe roof and fioor of a mine and having spaced vertically extending runspassing from one trimmer bar to the other,

a pair of laterally spaced drive sprockets disposed intermediate saidupper and lower trimmer bars and inwardly of the axes of rotation ofsaid boring heads and training said trimmer chain to extend angularlyinwardly of said corner sprockets about said drive sprockets into agenerally hourglass form and means driven by the drive gearing fordriving said boring heads for driving said drive sprockets at the samerates of speed in timed relation with respect to rotation of said boringheads and driving said trimmer chain along said trimmer bars to trim theroof and floor of the mine and dividing the drive loads on said trimmerchain to exert pulling forces on said trimmer chain through each of saidtrimmer bars.

2. The structure of claim 1,

wherein individual take up arms are pivoted on said main supportinghousing for movement about axes coaxial with the axes of rotation ofsaid drive sprockets,

wherein a separate idler is mounted on the end of each take up arm forengagement with a vertical run of said trimmer chain on the outgoingside of the associated drive sprocket,

wherein individual fluid pressure operated cylinders and pistons areoperatively connected between said main supporting housing and saidarms, and

wherein said cylinders and pistons are connected with a common source offluid under pressure to maintain equal tension on each vertical run ofsaid trimmer chain.

3. The structure of claim 2,

wherein each take up arm has a bearing pad thereon, spaced from theassociated tension idler and on the opposite side of the chain from thetension idler as the chain leaves its drive sprocket,

said bearing pads being engageable with the runs of the chain cominginto the associated drive sprockets in extreme take up positions of saidtension idlers, to prevent fouling of the outgoing run of the chain withthe incoming run of the chain under extreme take up conditions.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 2,743,093 4/1956 Robbins 299-61 X2,868,526 1/1959 Jamison et al 29961 X 3,062,519 11/1962 Osgood 29957 X40 ERNEST R. PURSER, Primary Examiner.

